Hopefully, you remember how to color inside the lines. Because doing so in the near future may save your life thanks to a new way to monitor your health by simply drawing on yourself.
Fast Company explains:
“Sensors placed on your skin are powerful tools for doctors. They can measure your temperature, hydration, heartbeat, and muscle strain. The problem is that their hardware can be bulky, invasive, and expensive. Wearing an EKG tracker can feel like mummifying your body in wires.
But a new technology out of the University of Houston, led by Associate Professor Cunjiang Yu, solves all of these problems. His team has developed “drawn-on-skin” electronics. Quite literally, they have demonstrated that you can take a ballpoint pen, fill it with a special semiconductor ink containing elements like silver, and draw specific diagnostic sensors right on your body. These sensors get their energy from a nearby wireless battery pack, and send/receive data via Bluetooth.
You may think you’ve seen this idea before. Similar-looking, gold-based circuit tattoos have been demonstrated for years, which stick on your skin to serve as a form of electronic identification, a touch-skin controller for another device, or a means to monitor various aspects of your health. But as Yu—who hails from the University of Illinois where that first tattoo technology was developed—explains, the very act of drawing sensors, as opposed to pre-printing them, comes with all sorts of benefits.
First and foremost, applying this advanced technology is decidedly low-tech. Heck, it’s easier than using a Spirograph. To apply, the stencil is taped onto the skin. The doctor (or even a patient) traces its line with a ballpoint pen filled with special ink. And after five minutes of drying time, the ink adheres to the skin and the stencil is removed.
Drawn directly onto the skin (without forcing you to shave first), that ink fills the unique crevasses of your body, tracking data with a level of fidelity that pre-printed circuits can’t…”
I just have one question though: aren’t doctors known for having terrible penmanship?! Are we sure this is a good idea?! As an aspiring artist I certainly hope so. At the very least, it definitely sounds appealing to me.
Are Drawn-On-Skin Electronics the Greatest Idea Ever?
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